Buckinghamshire won their ninth successive Midlands South Women’s County qualifier at Sonning but were pushed all the way by Worcestershire & Herefordshire.
FORMAT: Six-team round-robin playing 2 foursomes & 3 singles
The champions won their opening four matches in emphatic fashion, dropping just two game points along the way.
However their nearest challengers hung in there, picking up 3.5 out of a possible four points. And the two counties met on the final morning so Worcestershire & Herefordshire knew victory would secure them the title and a place in the English County Finals at King’s Lynn GC on September 22-24.
And they won both foursomes to raise hopes of an historic victory but Buckinghamshire’s singles players – Megan Dennis (Woburn), Olivia Lee (Gerrards Cross) and Ella Butteriss (Beaconsfield) – all delivered with Dennis finishing off the job on the 18th.
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For new captain Susanna Mitterer there was a great deal of relief, especially as Worcestershire & Herefordshire made such a strong start in the deciding match.
“I was very happy because, when you have a record like ours, the only way is down and you have a target on your backs. Everyone else is trying to stop you and they all put their best teams out against us.
“But I think we had a team with no weaknesses. Nine of the ten players were scratch or better.”
Mitterer was able to call up internationals Lee (England) and Roisin Scanlon (Ireland) while Georgia Lloyd (Buckingham) was a late replacement for an ill Hannah Cash (The Buckinghamshire). Cash’s clubmate Eleanor Lichtenhein made her debut aged just 13.
Winning Buckinghamshire team
• Ella Butteriss (Beaconsfield)
• Megan Dennis (Woburn)
• Alice Kozlowski (Ellesborough)
• Olivia Lee (Gerrards Cross)
• Georgia Lloyd (Buckingham)
• Grace Rigby-Walden (Gerrards Cross)
• Lily Robinson (Buckingham)
• Roisin Scanlon (Woburn)
• Eleanor Lichtenhein (The Buckinghamshire)
• Lulu Leetham (Buckingham)
The champions, who were 5/5 in winning last year at Leamington & County, started with two 5-0 victories over Berkshire and Oxfordshire and followed it the next day with 4-1 successes against Warwickshire and Northamptonshire.
Worcestershire & Herefordshire’s half came against Northamptonshire on the first afternoon and they gave themselves a great chance of ending Buckinghamshire’s run, which started in 2014, as Isabelle Badger and Gemma Glenister combined to win their foursomes match 5&4 while the top tie went the way of Karen Greenfield and Aimee Field (2&1).
And in the singles they were nip and tuck until the Bucks’ trio pulled away down the stretch. The title was assured with Dennis, playing in the first match out on the course, going all the way to 18 one up. Her captain was pleased to see her win the last also.
“We knew we had done it once Megan was one up playing 18 but I didn’t want to win it on countback… I wanted to win-win.
“I said to the girls afterwards that they looked so calm and collected but Megan said to me ‘if you knew how much I was shaking inside you wouldn’t have said that’.”
In last year’s national final the Bucks side finished second to Essex and Mitterer has plenty of selection issues to consider with four of her successful line-up unavailable due to US-based college commitments.
At King’s Lynn they will meet Midlands North champions Lincolnshire, Northern winners Yorkshire plus the representatives from The South, South West and East. Those regional finals have yet to be played.